MINUTES OF THE DOGTOWN HISTORICAL SOCIETY
May 14, 2005

CALL TO ORDER: President, John Corbett, called the meeting to order at 10:00 a.m. at the St. James Rectory. Twelve people were in attendance: John Corbett, Bob Corbett, Didi Gardner, Tom Haller, Henry Herbst, LaVergne McEvoy Lee, Virginia Lopez, Bill Miller, Gerry Miller, Al Milo, Kurt Odendahl and Sally Sharamitaro.

A motion was made and seconded to approve the minutes of the last meeting.

Treasurer’s Report -– Didi Gardner gave the current treasurer’s report. The beginning balance was $4,367.66. There was income of $460.00. Expenses came to $504.75. Ending balance is $4,322.91.

1. Century Home Committee – Bill Miller contacted the tile company and they agreed to accept an order of 12 plaques. Bob Corbett made a motion that the DHS pay the cost ($37.50) of a Century Home plaque for the O’Gorman House, the oldest house in Dogtown. The motion was seconded, a vote taken and the motion was approved. This brings the number of orders to 12. Bill will follow up and complete the ordering process for the 12 plaques.

2. Speakers Series - Our next Speakers Series event will be Sunday, May 22, 2005, the topic will be the St. Louis Zoo. The program will begin with a video, “The St. Louis Zoo: The Way We Were” with commentary by Charlie Hoessle, former Director of the Zoo, and will trace the history of the earliest beginnings of the Zoo to the present day. Nina Kassing Bryans will introduce the video and our special guest, her sister, Sharon Kassing, S.L., Coordinator for the Center for Inquiry in Science Teaching and Learning. Sr. Kassing will explain the development of educational programs for students and teachers at the Zoo where she is employed.

   Nina spent many hours searching and finally acquiring this video for this Zoo event. She found however, that because it is a video, it presented the DHS with a problem. Showing the video requires special equipment that the DHS cannot provide. This equipment includes a “behind the screen” projector and special audio speakers. There is also the additional cost of setting up and taking down the special equipment. Most companies Nina found, would charge $500.00, but one independent subcontractor has agreed to do the job for the DHS for $300.00.

   In Nina’s absence, Sally Sharamitaro presented the background on the need for this special equipment and made a motion requesting Board approval for $300.00 for the special Audio/Visual equipment. The motion was seconded and after a vote of the board, the motion passed.

3. St. James Bulletins – Bob explained that he has been gathering information on the costs to print the 1925-1932 St. James Let’s Go bulletins. He contacted Bill Vorbeck for the names of the printer and binder that Bill used for his personal Genealogy/Family History books, and one day last week they took the 1190 copied pages of the St. James Bulletin to that same printer and binder for estimates.

   Bob had ‘blown up’ the original 5 ½ x 7 inch pages to 8 ½ x 11 size. The finished bound version will be 600 pages (two sided copies). It would be printed on 70 weight acid free paper, with an estimated lifespan of 50 years. The cost for printing and binding a copy of the Bulletins would be approximately. $80.00. The binding would include a hardcover with the name on the spine of the book. Printing a title on the front cover would be an extra $2.50 per line per book.

   Bob sent a note to the Dogtown email list to ask how many would be interested in having their own copy of the printed Let’s Go Bulletins, and how many folks might be interested in funding a copy for the DHS archives. Two responded that they would like to have a personal copy and one would fund a copy for the DHS archives.

   A motion was made that the DHS purchase two copies (with a CD Rom which could be used at a later date for future printings) at $80.00 each for the DHS archives. The motion was seconded, and a vote to set aside $160.00 for this purchase was passed.

Living History –– John Corbett informed the members that the Wilma Messel tape is still to be transferred to VHS. Tom Haller asked about the process of interviewing and filming and if there is a set of questions he might use when interviewing Sr. Marie Lee at Deaconess Hospital.
4. Ghost Signs – John Corbett announced that a donor has come forward with a very generous gift. The donor is Robert G. Corbett, eldest son of Bob Corbett, and he has indicated that his gift would be at least $3000.00. The donation is to be directed toward the repainting of the Dogtown Alpen Brau ghost sign (across from Seamus McDaniels).

   After much discussion of ghost signs, who and how to do it, estimates of the cost, breweries and the building on which the Dogtown ghost sign is painted, it was decided that Henry Herbst will contact John Rooney and they will gather the information on such a project and report to the DHS at a future meeting. Henry brought several Alpen Brau beer items from his collection to the meeting for viewing by the members.

   OTHER BUSINESS –

   Historic District - There was more discussion on the news that Alderman Tom Bauer passed on the opportunity to designate Dogtown as a Historic District. Members discussed the century old buildings and what would happen were the buildings themselves declared “Historic.

   John will contact Alderman Bauer and invite him to the next DHS meeting to give the members an opportunity to ask questions on this issue and others that pertain to Dogtown, ie, park benches, highway and cloth signs, etc.

   Yearly Fund Raiser - Henry suggested that the DHS consider a calendar as a fund raiser. And he explained again how the Eureka Historical Society (EHS), which hasn’t been in existence as long as the DHS has, was successful in printing and selling their 2005 calendars. They sold enough of the calendars that the EHS made $4500.00, their estimated cost for the calendars Henry says was $1700.00.

Meeting adjourned 11:15 a.m. Next meeting will be Saturday, June 11, 2005 at 10:00am in St. James Rectory, 6401 Wade Avenue.

Respectfully submitted
Sally Ryan Sharamitaro,
Secretary, Dogtown Historical Society